Paul Cézanne’s posthumous retrospective at the Salon d’Automne in 1907 was a watershed event in the history of art. The immediate impact of this large presentation of his work on the young artists of Paris was profound. Its ramifications on successive generations down to the present are still in effect.

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This exhibition features forty paintings and twenty watercolors and drawings by Cézanne, displayed alongside works by several artists for whom Cézanne has been a central inspiration and whose work reflects, both visually and poetically, Cézanne’s extraordinary legacy.

Based on the remarkable resources of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, both in its holdings of major works by Cézanne and in its large collections of early modernist works—thanks to A. E. Gallatin and Louise and Walter Arensberg—this show is a unique occasion to experience the continuing impact of this influential painter.

Artists In The Exhibition

Ellsworth Kelly (American, born 1923)"Cézanne tackled and conceptualized the three-dimensional
world in terms of its underlying structure and our uncertain
relationships to it."

Fernand Léger (French, 1881–1955)"[Cézanne’s] influence was so strong that in order to free myself
I had to move all the way to abstraction."

Sherrie Levine (American, born 1947)"I engage the idea of removing the artist completely from the
artwork, so that it becomes a kind of group project with audience
participation."

Brice Marden (American, born 1938)"Cézanne, my hero."

Henri Matisse (French, 1869–1954)"I thought: If Cézanne is right, I am right. Because I knew
Cézanne had made no mistake."

Piet Mondrian (Dutch, 1872–1944)"Beauty in art is created not by the objects of representation but
by the relationships of line and color (Cézanne)."

Giorgio Morandi (Italian, 1890–1964)"We sat down around the big table and talked about art," John
Rewald recalled, "not so much about his [Morandi’s] as about the
masters he admired, above all Cézanne and Seurat."

Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973)"[Cézanne] was my one and only master! Don’t
you think I looked at his pictures?"

Liubov Popova (Russian, 1889–1924)"Cézanne no longer depicted the impression of the
object, but only its essence."

Jeff Wall (Canadian, born 1946)"I have always admired Cézanne."

Francis Alÿs (Belgian, born 1959)"I remember blaming Cézanne (or was it that I blessed him) for
having saved me from having to deal with the enigma of painting."

Max Beckmann (German, 1884–1950)"Cézanne was my greatest love and still is when I think of French art."

Georges Braque (French, 1882–1963)"To my way of thinking, there is no master equal to Cézanne."

Paul Cézanne (French, 1839–1906)"In my thought one doesn’t replace the past, one only adds a new
link to it."

Charles Demuth (American, 1883–1935)"John Marin and I drew our inspiration from the same source,
French modernism. He brought his up in buckets and spilt much
along the way. I dipped mine out with a teaspoon, but I never
spilled a drop."

Alberto Giacometti (Swiss, 1901–1966)"Cézanne did not … seek to be original. And yet there is no
painter so original as Cézanne."

Arshile Gorky (American, born Armenia, 1904–1948)"Cézanne is the greatest artist, shall I say, that has lived."

Marsden Hartley (American, 1877–1943)"[Cézanne had] ideas that were to make the world of painting
over again."

Jasper Johns (American, born 1930)"As for the Cézanne [Bather], it has a synesthetic quality that
gives it great sensuality—it makes looking equivalent to touching."

Sponsors

This exhibition is made possible by

Additional funding is provided by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, The Annenberg Foundation Fund for Exhibitions, The Florence Gould Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts, The Andrew W. Mellon Fund for Scholarly Publications, the National Endowment for the Arts, and an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. Promotional support provided by NBC 10 WCAU; the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau (PCVB); The Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News, and Philly.com; the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (GPTMC); and Amtrak.

Organizer

This exhibition is organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and will only be shown in Philadelphia